This site, from the Canadian Institutes of Health Research’s Institute of Neurosciences, Mental Health and Addiction sponsors, offers in-depth information to students of all levels about such brain-related issues as the senses, memory, pleasure and pain, and mental disorders.

The ChemCollective offers teachers and students free virtual lab materials, tutorials, scenarios, and simulations to use in class, along with an opportunity for teachers to share materials with one another. The National Science Digital Library and the National Science Foundation sponsor the site.

The Human Genome Project, part of the National Human Genome Research Institute, offers a free, online, multimedia kit for high school students interested in human genetics. The kit explores such topics as the history of genetic discovery, the future of research and medicine, and the ethical, legal, and social implications of genetic knowledge.

The National Science Foundation has partnered with NBC to create this online video series to help us understand the latest research from scientists and to better understand the complexities of the human brain.

Developed by the National Institute on Drug Abuse (NIDA), with input from teenagers, this site delivers science-based facts about how drugs affect the brain and body so that kids will be armed with better information to make healthy decisions.

NOVA provides teacher's guides—including a substantial number of classroom and online interactive activities—that can be either used on their own or in conjunction with the television programs that inspired them.

Pathways to Science, a web portal created by the New York Academy of Sciences' K-12 Science Education Initiative, is a virtual home for New York City science teachers to link to the digital resources of the Academy, and the science world beyond. Pathways to Science contains blogs, an active discussion board, links to resources, and direct access to Academy content.

These original lessons build upon one another and have an accompanying plot line where the world is fighting a zombie apocalypse and the best and the brightest young people are being trained as medical students – with a specialty in neuroscience – with the hopes that they will be able to provide a cure to this terrible epidemic and save humanity. From PBS Newshour, and tied to the book, The Zombie Autopsies, by Steven Schlotzmann, MD, but can stand alone.

Lesson Plans > History

Learn about the origins of many scientific discoveries. Here you see the application of science in our everyday life and how everyday life inspires science. This site is no longer actively updated, but is maintained by the Marian Koshland Science Museum of the National Academy of Sciences.

Want to learn about some incredible role models? Celebrate the lives and achievements of numerous female physicians who have made great strides in the practice of medicine. You can find bios for specific female physicians or browse through the entire group.

Take a look at a variety of historical scientific instruments, timelines in neurology, European portraits and caricatures of neuroscientists, among other projects funded by the Federation of European Neuroscience Societies.

In the 1930s, Joseph B. Friedman created the first flexible straw after watching his daughter struggle to drink her milkshake with an inflexible, paper straw. Read this and other fascinating and quirky stories behind countless inventions. Explore inventors thoughts, drawings, and lives, and start working on your own inventions in the Spark!Lab.

In 4000 B.C., they discovered the euphoric effects of poppy plants. By the 5th & 6th centuries B.C., the sensory nerves were dissected, and Hippocrates and Plato first proposed that the brain was the center of human intelligence and mental processes. Follow this link to explore the history of neuroscience research.

Learn about public health efforts through the decades; discover important medical achievements from the ancient Greeks and early Muslims; and take a look at the other online exhibitions. Many exhibitions include online activities and lesson plan ideas.

Lesson Plans > News

ActionBioscience.org is an educational website that provides articles by scientists, science educators, and science students on issues related to seven bioscience challenges such as the environment and biotechnology.

BrainFacts.org is a public information initiative of The Kavli Foundation, the Gatsby Charitable Foundation, and the Society for Neuroscience, which provides information about the brain and nervous system.

Every week, Science for Kids adds an article about a study published in a recent edition of the journal, Science. The site, sponsored by the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS), also links to activities and other AAAS resources.

The listing of an organization's Web site does not imply endorsement by the Dana Foundation or the Dana Alliance for Brain Initiatives.

Like Print?

Subscribe free to Brain in the News, a monthly newspaper we mail to you with articles and websites from around the world, highlighting the latest discoveries about the brain. Subscribe Now

Like Email?

Sign up for one of our newslettersNews: Monthly roundup of Dana stories and other information Cerebrum: Monthly announcement of new Cerebrum feature storiesReport on Progress publication announcementSubscribe Now